What’s History Got to do with it?

I just finished reading this article in the Dec. 2010 issue of National Geographic (thank you doctor’s office waiting room). The cover caught my eye, particularly because I’ve spent the last several weeks studying a contemplating the life of David.

I’ve always found those specials on 20/20, Dateline, etc. on proving biblical phenomena like the parting of the Red Sea, or finding evidence Noah’s ark on Mt. Ararat to be slightly annoying. After spending a ridiculous amount of time sitting through commercials and about 15 minutes of actual commentary, an hour later, I’m sitting on the couch with more questions in my head. So, when I saw the cover of a National Geographic with the title “The Search for King David: New Discoveries in the Holy Land” I hesitated only briefly because so much of my time these last few weeks has been spent studying the life of this guy.

The article centered around

While reading it, I began to wonder if God just looks down on us, digging in the ground, holding press conferences, getting our underclothes in a bunch over things like this and just laughs. He’s got to. I don’t say all of this to discount highly educated individuals life’s work, because when is the last time my name appeared in magazine with a 3.5M circulation? I do say this to revel in the amazing mystery of God, in history and in the concept, of whether or not we found David’s very throne if our faith would be that much stronger. What I’ve come to find is that God created things to have mystery, like the human heart, and what I mean by that is the soul, for example. Yes, we’ve been able to break down the most foundational building block our our bodies, DNA, in order to solve crimes, determine paternity, track people groups throughout history, but there remains this enigma of why people make the decisions they do, what makes us tick and that’s what brings me back again to David. As I discussed in earlier posts, David and God were thick as thieves as well, that may not be the best use of terms, but you understand what I’m getting at: they were intimate. They had to be intimate. God delivered David out of so many physically dangerous situations but just as many heart-rending dilemas as well: the death of his best friend, the death of 3 of his sons, yet God was right there, he saw David’s heart ache. What other man could pen the words as beautiful as:

It was a discussion of th

reputation Jockeying, some issues of funding and even

I think the most poingnant piece of the whole article was a caption that came under a picture of a broken piece of stone, with the caption, “Until the 1993 discover of a ninth-century B.C. stela inscribed with “House of David,” there was no nonbiblical evidence that David actually existed. Few dispute it now.” What does that mean for us? For those of who doubt, who have been brought up to know this God, but when personal tragedy strikes, He feels as distant as an artifact burried under the rubble of thousands of years of change. How do we make the God real to us.

The truth is, science isn’t necessarily going to bring us to a great understanding of God, but rather the great mysteries of God. The God who gave us individual fingerprints,